Much discussed and awaited, John Woo’s “Red Cliff”—the filmmaker’s return to Asia after a stint in Hollywood, and his first picture made on mainland China —arrives here today.

At 148 minutes, it’s shorter than the two-part, five-hour version successfully released in Asia. That’s probably for the best, since the missing footage is said to be exposition heavy, of more interest to Asians than to Westerners.

What remains is a scrumptious war movie, set in A.D. 208, with a cast of thousands of warriors, horses, spears and flaming projectiles.

So what if there are plot holes and you can’t always tell who’s who. Just sit back, switch your brain into neutral and enjoy the diabetesinducing eye candy.

As much as I enjoyed “Red Cliff,” I still have a fondness for the stylized gangster flicks (“Bullet in the Head,” “A Better Tomorrow,” etc.) that Woo made in Hong Kong in the ’80s and ’90s. I guess that’s why somebody invented the DVD.

In Mandarin, with English subtitltes. Running time: 148 minutes. Rated R (violence, nudity, sex). At the Sunshine, Houston Street, at First Avenue.